Otherself
by Mazamba
Summary: [U1] During a trip to Jump City, a dark power surge changes the lives of five not-quite-sane girls. (Possible slash, not sure yet. PM me if you want to see a specific pairing and I'll think about it.)
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

"Wake up, Mato! You're gonna be late!" called Mrs. Kuroi up the stairs to her sleepy (or sleeping) daughter.

As it turned out, Mato Kuroi wasn't sleeping (anymore). Rather, she was trying to find her suitcase whilst freaking out at what her friends would do to her if they missed their plane because of her. Saya, her school's counselor, had decided to treat her, Yomi, Yuu, and even Kagari to a trip to Jump City as an apology for the trouble that she and Yuu had caused. Yomi and Kagari (who had never even met Saya) had been understandably confused at the sudden invitation, but accepted nonetheless.

"There you are!" cried Mato, having finally spotted her packed suitcase under the bed. She had placed it there thinking that she wouldn't forget about it, "So much for that."

"Mato!"called her mother again.

"Coming!"

All in all, Mato couldn't be happier.

* * *

Raven was NOT happy. Not happy at all.

For starters, Beast Boy and Cyborg had been on a pranking spree for the last week and NO ONE was safe. The two goofballs were currently hiding from Starfire after they had accidentally foiled her latest plan to finally see their leader's face with an inky mask. This resulted in an angry lecture from Robin about respect for his privacy and a cold shoulder to Starfire until further notice. This, in turn, convinced the tamaranian that the Boy Wonder now hated her, and left her sobbing onto Raven's naked lap.

On top of all that, Joy had managed to get her hands on a paddle ball and wouldn't stop messing with Rage.

"He haaates meee!"

Raven could only sigh in irritation as she cursed her own insistence in wearing a leotard. If Beast Boy saw her trying to dry off her legs and crotch, the pee jokes would inevitably follow.

With all the stress from the week, she was surprised that she hadn't destroyed the tower yet.

"Starfire, for the last time Robin doesn't hate you," she said for the seventy-eighth time in the past hour. She'd kept count. "He's just a little peeved at you for trying to take off his mask. Again."

The green-eyed beauty had been at it ever since the incident in Tokyo had finally cemented the two's overdue relationship. She had caught a glimpse of her boyfriend's eyes at the time and had since gone through every single length imaginable to get a better view.

"But-,"

"He glared at you. He glares at everyone."

"Yes," agreed Starfire, "but this glare was different! What if he doesn't want to be going out with me any longer? What if he hates me? He is at least angry with me. What if we do the breaking up and we can't talk to each other anymore and can never be friends again and he hates me and becomes the Nightwing before he turns evil and starts brainwashing young maidens to be with him because I couldn't and-,"

"One, you've been watching too many late-night soap operas. Two, he doesn't hate you! I don't think it's _possible_ to hate you. You're too bubbly to be hated. He's just a little mad, it happens to all couples and it _will_ pass."

"Really?" she sniffled. A disarmingly adorable sight that made even Raven blush.

"Yes, really," she replied, hiding her red cheeks by hiding them behind a box of tissues, "now blow your nose and stop crying. You're messing up my clothes."

"Oh, I apologize friend Raven. I suppose this is more of the typical roommate troubles."

"You could say that."

Unknown to either of the girls, a certain green-skinned menace had decided that his quarantine time was over. Beast Boy had snuck in through the window as a fly while Raven had all seven senses focused on the teen drama on her lap.

Granted, it was his fault but Robin needed to learn to take a joke.

The prank was as simple as it was likely to leave him black and blue for the next week. Sneak up on Raven and attack her with a pink feather boa. He was just waiting for the alien powerhouse to vacate the premises. The changeling had no desire to receive another starbolt on the rear that particular week.

Shortly after Starfire left, the small annoying insect was startled by the black aura that surrounded a nearby jar that was then crushed into powder. A smarter person would have then realized that this was the worst possible time to strangle the dark sorceress into pink, feathery oblivion. Unfortunately, Beast Boy currently had the brain of an insect. Or at least that was the excuse that he would use later from the emergency room.

Shifting to the form of a weasel, he snuck under Raven's bed to retrieve the obnoxiously pink boa he had stashed there the previous night. Waiting for the right moment to strike was crucial. If Raven decided to change clothes while he was still in the room, skin discoloration would be the least of his problems.

Fortunately, it seemed that Raven was content with wiping the tears off her legs for the time being and had opted to simply take a nap on her bed. Grinning like a Cheshire cat, Beast Boy slunk out in a feline form, hoping that Raven wouldn't kill him if he looked cute enough. It was a long shot, but he'd take it.

He climbed over the bed, made a note to apologize to Raven for the scratches on her bed sheets, and shifted to his human form, nullifying his plan to cute his way out of trouble. A malicious grin broke out on his face as he pondered his attempt at suicide.

"Shake her awake, wrap boa around neck, and then take the picture. OR, risk a tackle wrap and THEN take the picture," he pondered. Meh, he was dead either way.

Beast Boy had already taken the leap by the time he realized a crucial mistake in his plan.

"Aw, crud! The camera!"

The boa landed and was rapidly wrapped around the sorceress' neck. A shocked scream from the grey skinned woman resulted in a black aura that launched Beast Boy over the skyline (he landed in the hospital parking lot, much to his relief) and shattered various objects in her room.

Except for one. When the wave hit a hand mirror on her dresser, it shattered the connection that she had to it. The backlash was obvious to the demon halfling immediately.

"BEAST BOY!"

When the green menace failed to show, she noticed the broken window with a piece of his purple costume hanging from the sill.

"Serves him right," she muttered, mourning the loss of her mirror. It had never been an ordinary mirror to begin with. Its original purpose was to show the inner selves of anyone who looks into it after a lengthy period of meditation. She had merely modified the spell to have it work only for her own inner world out of convenience's sake. She could make a new one, but it would be easier to reset this one.

She would make spares though, just in case.

* * *

**Author's Note: **This one's been in the works for a while now. It just hit me one day and wouldn't stop bugging me until I wrote it down. Quite a few chapters are already finished so you can expect weekly updates for now.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The five of them had agreed to meet at the school. Although most of their parents had been understandably apprehensive at the idea of letting their daughters take the eight hour flight overseas, the presence of the teacher had calmed most qualms. Saya wasn't about to tell them _why_ she was spending a sizeable piece of her savings on this trip mind you.

"Irino-Sensei!" called a familiar voice to her left. She turned to see Yomi Takanashi and Kagari Izuriha walking towards her from a black car.

"Saya-chan!" called a third voice, bringing attention to her old friend, Yuu Koutari who appeared from behind the car, startling her friends in the process.

Part of the reason that she had decided to go on the trip was to celebrate her friend's return from the Otherworld. A single hour in that slaughter house would be enough to drive a seasoned soldier insane, yet Yuu had managed to come out of it all practically unscathed. The only real problem was that she occasionally forgot that injuries took longer to heal here, hence the constant cast on her right arm.

"How long were hiding there?" asked Kagari as the smaller girl caught up.

"I arrived right after you two did!"

"Where's Mato?" asked Saya as she looked for her student.

"We did say to meet here at ten," said Yuu, "she probably slept in again."

"Or forgot her suitcase," added Kagari.

"Or forgot to pack," finished Saya.

"She probably just put it somewhere she thought she'd remember and forgot," cut in Yomi, "she does that a lot with her books."

"You sure know her well," said Saya with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, I'm the one that usually had to help her find everything," admitted the spectacled girl.

"SO much trust," called a voice to their right.

"Speak of the devil," said Yuu, "took you long enough. Your Little Bird was peeping all over the place for you."

Yuu grinned at Mato's sudden blush while Yomi tilted her head in confusion. Kagari looked oddly annoyed for some reason.

"Little Bird?" asked Yomi.

"Woah, look at the time!" cut in Mato, "we should get going! Let's go Yuu! Didn't you want to meet the Teen Titans?"

"Oh, that's right!" yelled Yuu, forgetting her observation almost immediately.

"Teen Titans?" asked Kagari, "those weirdos that dress up in ugly costumes?"

"Weirdos? They're the coolest!"

"Alright you two, we have eight hours to kill on the plane. You might as well argue then." Cut in Saya before those two could get started again. Yuu was a fan of superhero shows when she was little and the appearance of real superheroes in the U.S. had brought that old love back.

Once inside, Yuu and Mato finally exploded just as Saya was starting the ignition.

"This is gonna be so cool!"

* * *

"Not cool man!" snapped Beast Boy as he limped back into the tower, "it was just a joke! She didn't have to add me to the skyline!"

"You asked for it," said Cyborg, "girl's been tense all week and you choose _now_ to smother her with a boa? You're just lucky she didn't set Rage on you."

"I thought it was called wrath?"

"Either way, this has gone far enough," interrupted a third voice. Robin, it appeared, had not yet forgiven the two for messing with his mask (Cyborg) and putting itching powder on his underwear (Beast Boy). "Starfire's depressed, the girl's floor is totaled, and I'm half a step from shoving you BOTH into the garbage compactor!"

The two pranksters gulped, they hadn't seen Robin this angry since the time he found out about the oil balloon that Beast Boy splashed on Starfire's face.

"Now the two of you will call off this ridiculous feud of yours before someone other than you two gets hurt!"

"A little late for that," called a monotone voice from the left. Raven walked in holding her now useless mirror and a small box.

"What happened?"

"Captain goofball here broke the link between my mind and my meditation mirror," she replied, "now I have to go put this under the moonlight to form the link back up."

"What's in the box?" asked Cyborg.

"Spares."

* * *

"Spare towels? Really?"

Mato's skepticism was fairly justified, at least in her mind. However, most would agree that bringing twenty towels to a hotel that offered them for free was a bit excessive.

The quintet had arrived two hours ago after the eight hour flight. They were all tired, cramped, and more than a little cranky. The first thing that Saya had done was claim the shower as her own while the students were left to unpack, sleep, and watch TV. Kagari and Mato had been unpacking when their fluff-themed argument started.

"The towels at this hotel are too rough," Kagari said in defense of her poofy towels, "and I have delicate skin. Besides, all the other ones are being used."

Yuu, for her part, found nothing wrong with the towels and had opted to cuddle one like a teddy bear while she napped. Saya had taken a towel herself to dry off after her shower, whereas Yomi simply used the rest as a cushion to watch TV since Kagari and Mato had hoarded the couch.

"That's true," Mato conceded, "but why would you need TWENTY TOWELS!?"

"TEN towels," countered the smaller girl, "and ten blankets. I hear it gets cold in America."

Mato only face palmed.

"We're in California, during the summer. I don't think you'll be using these much."

"All right you two, knock it off," cut in Saya as she walked back in dressed in a simple t-shirt and short, hair still wet from her shower, "we have three weeks here and I'm not about to start our vacations with an argument about bed sheets."

"Towels," corrected Mato, "but you're right."

"Well, now that that's settled, who wants ice cream?"

Yuu woke up immediately.

* * *

"Would you wake up already!?"

Raven was more than a little frustrated. For starters, her spell circle had failed. Only her original mirror had been restored while the other five had linked up to the minds of random strangers. Granted, their inner worlds seemed interesting, but it wasn't polite to go looking in other people's minds.

As it was their weekly cleaning day, it was up to Beast Boy to take out the garbage. In response, he was currently trying to shirk his duties by sleeping. She understood that he didn't like to walk the five stories down to get to the garbage can, but you'd think he'd be used to it by now.

Still, not for the first time she questioned the wisdom of making their headquarters the most obvious building in the city. Not only had the ten stories been excessive, but more than once the giant T had stood for "Target Locked" in the eyes of the local supervillains.

Still, they all had their chores. Today she and Beast Boy were set up for the grunt work. While Robin dusted, Starfire cleaned the gutters, and Cyborg re-calibrated the training room. Raven, in turn, had to wash the dishes and vacuum while Beast Boy had to take out the garbage and mow the lawn.

If only he would wake up.

"All right, you asked for it."

The spell was a simple one, if a bit unorthodox. It basically involved sneaking a sense of great urgency into the victim's mind while their brain filled out the rest. In this case, Beast Boy had but a single worry.

"The new Robot Man comes out today!" he shouted as he ran out of his room half-dressed.

"Nope, chores come first," she said, grabbing him in a black field.

"But-but-but-!"

"That stupid game of yours comes out next month," she informed him, "but it's your turn to take out the garbage."

"Huh? Then why-?"

"I had to get you up somehow."

Beast Boy wasn't too happy with having his brain tampered with, but calmed down with the promise of a triple chili tofu dog. Everyone would regret her promise by the time that it was processed later that night, but it was Cyborg's turn to wash the bathroom anyways.

The two of them managed to get to the floor level, only to find a lack of constant cleaning.

"Raven, Beast Boy, emergency."

Raven jumped. Robin was the only one that could ever sneak up on her.

"What is it this time?" she asked once she calmed down.

"Dr. Light… again," said Cyborg from the computer. Sure enough, a surveillance camera showed the dull bulb himself raiding a museum.

"Again? This is the third time this month!" Complained Beast Boy.

"AND, he's going for those crystals again," noted Cyborg.

Sure enough, gripped in his gloved hands were two, acid green crystals that had been extracted from a ruin in Egypt. Exactly why he was after those specific crystals was unknown as the good doctor had managed to escape them each time with a set of flash grenades he had recently taken to carrying. However, judging by his choice of weaponry and pseudonym, they were most likely needed for a new laser.

By now the crystals left in the museum were fakes left to lure Dr. Light in. The real ones had been left in a deposit box at Gotham City Bank for safekeeping.

"He took the bait. Are the trackers working?" asked Robin.

"Like a fine tuned engine."

"Then let's see if we can finally track him to his hide out. Starfire, keep an eye on him from above. Raven, keep to the shadows. Beast Boy will ride with Cyborg as we track him from the back roads."

With that, the quintet flew and/or ran out of the room.

"Sweet! No cleaning today!"

"Beast Boy, take out the garbage on your way out," called out the Teen Wonder as an afterthought.

"Aw man!"

* * *

"Yeah, baby! Kiss my ass losers!" yelled Yuu in english.

"Do you even know what that means?" asked Mato in their native tongue.

"No, but it sounds cool!"

"You just asked us to kiss your… bottom," clarified Yomi.

Yuu only blushed for a moment before turning back to the DDR game she was playing Kagari with. The skinny girl had only relearned how to walk a few months ago and was being utterly creamed.

"All right, give me your best shot!" called Mato as she took her blonde friend's place.

Yomi, for her part, had taken to fanning her exhausted friend as she leaned against her right shoulder. Her professor had sat down on her left side while she cheered Yuu on.

The quintet had spent the entire day in every single tourist attraction they could think of and had decided to take a break at the arcade across the mall. Exactly how that was supposed to help them relax was anyone's guess.

"Eno, Inori-Sensei?" asked Yomi.

"Oh, please! Call me Saya, everyone else here does." She said with a wave of her hand.

"Oh, um Saya? Why did you invite us?"

"Did you not want to come?"

"Oh, no we are grateful," she said, "It's just that you seem to know Yuu and Mato well, but we only met a few weeks ago."

"Well, I just thought that you'd be lonely if I took your friends away for the summer," replied the teacher.

"How do you know them?" asked Kagari, having finally caught her breath.

"Well, I met Yuu in middle school under some… unfortunate circumstances," she responded with some hesitation in her voice, "Mato helped her out with some personal problems she was having. We set this up to thank her for that and as an apology for the trouble that we caused her."

"What kind of trouble?" asked Yomi warily.

"Well, nothing life threatening if that's what you're asking," she responded with a faraway look, "but nothing that's really my place to discuss either. It was basically a _really_ complicated personal issue."

Yomi pondered this for a few minutes. What kind of issue would be big enough for them to have to hide it like that? Did they somehow end up in some sort of criminal act? Maybe it was just some family trouble that Mato helped mediate. Heaven knew that she hated to see anyone sad.

As Yomi's thoughts fermented towards a rather clichéd plot for a soap opera, she failed to notice that Saya had left with Mato to get them drinks, that Kagari had claimed her lap as a pillow for a nap, and that Yuu had gone across the street to check out a sudden news bulletin.

"It's the Titans!"

Yuu was ecstatic. Her heroes close enough to touch! Well, not really but you get the idea.

"Where are they?" asked Mato from behind her as she gave her a coke. Yuu had been disappointed that the US didn't have any normal soda flavors like watermelon but a coke was good enough.

"I dunno," she admitted, "I think that street looks familiar though. Didn't we see that statue on the way here?"

"Hey, there's our hotel!" noted Mato as the cameraman followed the battle from a safe distance.

"Um, isn't that the arcade?" asked Saya with a wary tone right before an explosion shook the building and a blue object crashed into the shop.

"Yomi!"

* * *

**Author's Note:**Wasn't planning on releasing this until next week, but what the the hell. By the way, any desirable shipping anyone wants?


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Cyborg!" cried Robin as his cybernetic friend was blasted into an electronic shop.

The titan cursed under his breath. Dr. Light had spotted Starfire following him and had since been fighting much more viciously than usual. Beast Boy was already out for the count thanks to a lucky shot that had rammed him head-first into a gym, Starfire was covered in scorch marks from the madman's lasers, Raven was constantly being kept at bay by his frantic attacks, and Robin himself was beginning to tire.

"Starfire! Evacuate the area! I don't know what crawled into Dr. Light's suit, but this is gonna take longer than expected."

"But most are already fleeing."

"I meant _those_ idiots!"

He pointed towards the multiple reporters that were recording the event and a girl that had suddenly dashed across the street.

"Oh, right!" she muttered, "Um, everybody! Please exit the area! The Doctor of Light is too dangerous for you to approach!"

"Miss Starfire, are you having difficulties with Dr. Light?"

"Is it true that there is a romantic relationship between you and Raven? What would you like to say to those that would reject such a union?"

"Have there been any breakthroughs in the hunt for the remaining members of the Brotherhood?"

"Who designs your costumes and why are they so vividly colored?"

"Is it true that you need to perform intercourse to learn new languages?"

"What do you have to say to those that claim that you are an illegal alien?"

"Um, yes. No and nothing. None that I can mention. We do but I don't know. Of course not! And I was made a citizen when I first arrived."

The alien could only sigh in defeat as she resisted the urge to send them skywards. The reporters had been quick to figure out that she was the only one that ever answered _any_ of their questions before the official press conference and often hounded her for information that had nothing to do with the situation. She decided that the direct approach would be best in this case.

Meaning that she stuffed them back into their vans and carried them to a raised parking lot.

Once the reporters were gone, she went to look for the girl who was undoubtedly trying to take pictures with her phone.

* * *

Back at the battle, Dr. Light was panicking. _SHE_ had arrived.

The bane of his existence, his greatest fear, the very reason that he had taken to sleeping with a night light was hounding him. Lasers, beams, flash grenades. It was everything he could do to keep the demon away.

Normally, he would have cut his losses and let himself be carried back to jail, but this was far too important. The crystals he had stolen had been extracted from an Egyptian ruin, but he could care less about that.

Their true value laid in their destructive capabilities. A single shard of those crystals would power a beam strong enough to vaporize Titans Tower with all of their inhabitants inside. In fact…

"I didn't want to use these here, but I have no choice!" he muttered as he ran into a nearby arcade to take cover.

As expected, the likely presence of children kept the Titans from attacking for a few moments, though he was certain that he saw a black shadow sneak in after him.

Hiding behind a basketball machine, he opened the core access on his left laser. Switching out the cores, he couldn't help but grin at his find. One blast and the Titans would be history.

So long as he put in the right crystal.

* * *

"Wait please! It is dangerous!" called Starfire to the smaller girl. It wasn't too difficult for her to catch up and rapidly lifted the girl into the air.

"Wait! My friends are in there!" Starfire was surprised to hear Japanese.

"Your friends?"

"Yes! They were waiting for us to come back with drinks when that weirdo attacked!"

"I see," she said, and she did. Their group knew all too well how it felt to be helpless, "but you cannot help much right now. Please wait there while I retrieve your friends."

"Eh, you?" the girl paused for a moment before recognition flashed in her eyes, "Oh! Starflame!"

"Starfire," she corrected, "and don't worry! We have the situation under control."

With a sound like thunder, the arcade burst in a sea of light and smoke.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Really churning these out quickly. Lot faster than usual anyways. If anyones sees any issues with the character personalities, please let me know. I hate OOC characters..


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Mato!" Yuu cried, fearful for her friend's safety.

Saya struggled to hold her friend back as the dust slowly dissipated. The two waited with breaths held and tears barely held in their eyes. Not for the first time Yuu wished for Strength's power.

A soft coughing finally broke through the dust, revealing Starfire with Mato's inert form in her arms. The girl had been rendered unconscious by the shockwave from the blast.

"Kuroi!" called Saya as she ran to the alien with Yuu trailing behind, "Is she all right?"

"She will be fine," responded Starfire, "she is just asleep. She should awaken soon."

"Mato," whispered Saya as she took the sleeping girl and set her on the ground, "thank you. Starfire, is it?"

"You are most welcome," she replied, "but you must leave! It is too dangerous here."

"But what about our friends!?" asked Yuu frantically, pointing towards the ruined arcade, "they're still in there!"

"We will retrieve them! Please trust us."

Yuu did not look convinced, but admitted that she could do nothing to help.

"Strength could help," she whispered to herself, unaware that the alien had caught the apparently nonsensical English word.

"Please, help my stu- no, my friends," begged Saya.

"We most certainly will," she answered, before turning to Robin who was trying to get his bearings, "friend Robin, there are people still inside!"

"Raven! Can you feel them in there?"

"Definitely," replied the sorceress, "there are at least twenty kids in there, but as for their friends… one is unconscious but otherwise unharmed. The other one though… what the!?"

Raven fell out of the air as her power was suddenly drained out of her.

"What in Azar is that!?" she growled as her power spiraled out of control.

_Our apologies_, said a female voice within her head, _but we need to be born here._

Before she could question the oice, hver mind went under.

* * *

Kagari had never felt so scared. She had been in a constant state of terror ever since the madman with the high-powered laser had entered the building. The two had tried to leave but a well-aimed beam had marked a line in front of them. A single day into their vacations, and they had become hostages.

Just when she thought things couldn't get worse, the madman started tinkering with his left gauntlet. A test fire on one of the nearby machines resulted in an explosion that toppled the building and launched him out through the wall.

Now she was pinned under the rubble as she clung to Yomi's unconscious body. At least the madman was gone.

She wanted to leave. She wanted to go home. She wanted to stop clinging to Yomi's arm like a newborn.

She hated being so dependant. Despite having met some improvement since she left the wheelchair, she still found herself relying on her oldest friend for homework and help with studies. Things that normal friends did anyways, but her own dependence annoyed her to no end.

But now Yomi was out for the count, and she felt more helpless than she ever had in her life. She needed help. If not for herself, then to help her best friend.

The friend that she had hurt so much in her desperation to keep her in her life.

She had no idea why Yomi had stuck with her for as long as she did. The scar in her chest was still visible if one knew what to look for, not to mention that in her envy she very nearly ruined the greenete's friendship with Mato.

"Help me," she whispered, "I want to go home. I want to talk to Yomi again. I want to beat Yuu at that stupid game of hers. I want to argue with Mato again."

As she spoke, she did not notice the strand of black magic that ran over her friend.

"I want to let Saya-sensei braid my hair this time. I want, no, I _need_ to apologize to Yomi and Mato. I owe them so much. I _hurt them_ so much. I need to talk to them. I need help. Please help me."

The strand touched her.

_"Do you wish to save her?"_


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

_"What?"_

_"Do you want to save her?"_

_"Of course I do! She's my friend!"_

_"Is she? After we used them? After we broke them? After our legs became their chains?"_

_"H-how do you know about that!?"_

_"How indeed," the owner of the voice finally appeared, revealing herself from the shadows._

_Kagari stifled a frightened gasp. If only looked at the face alone, this other girl could have easily passed for her twin._

_That was where the similarities ended though. She was wearing a Victorian dress like the ones she put on her dolls and a black crown. More disturbingly, she also had a set of skeletal claws for hand._

_The worst part, however, was her legs._

_Where creamy, white skin should be, her thighs ended in two mechanical knees and calves, lipped with massive wheels instead of feet. _

_"Wh-who are you?"_

_"The question is, who are _you_?"_

_"K-Kagari, Kagari Izuriha."_

_"Are you?"_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"If you wish to save her, you cannot be Kagari Izuriha."_

_"Why not? What's wrong with me!?"_

_"Kagari Izuriha is but a child. Weak. Unconditioned. Manipulative. Crippled."_

_"Crippled?" she growled, "What do you mean crippled?"_

_She stood._

_Or at least she tried to. In hindsight, she had not even been aware that she had been sitting. Years of spending her time on a wheelchair made sitting feel as familiar as standing._

_She slowly looked down in terror._

_THE CHAIR._

_She was sitting on the one device she had sworn never to return to. Chained down by lengths of barbed wire the same color as her twin's metal arms and clothed by a familiar nightgown. _

_"W-what-!?"_

_"If you wish to save her, you must release that which binds you," said the girl coldly, "you must stand on your own two feet."_

_"How am I supposed to do that like THIS!?" _

_Kagari tore at the wire, only cutting her skin in the process. Red stained the pure white gown._

_"You must stand."_

_"Then let me!"_

_"How can you help her if you can't do even this? How will you live without hindering her? You must stand!"_

_"I CAN'T!"_

_Silence reigned for a few, precious seconds._

_"Then you never will."_

* * *

Back up top, the situation wasn't much better. Starfire was struggling to lift Raven's unconscious body out of her own power's hold while Robin held back an injured, but trigger happy Dr. Light.

"What did you do to my Crystals!?" he screamed, "Where are they? What junk did you put into my suit!?"

"Prototype explosive crystals," replied Robin as he dodged yet another beam, "Stark sends his regards by the way."

"Robin!" screamed Starfire, "I cannot move friend Raven!"

"Keep trying! You two, get out of there!"

Saya and Yuu were moving as much rubble as possible, trying to get to their entombed friends.

"We have to get Yomi and Kagari out!" replied Saya in English, "just keep that freak away from us!"

"Please be ok Yomi," grunted the teacher with every rock and pile of dirt she moved, "you too Kagari. Rock didn't kill Chariot for nothing you pampered brat!"

Yuu only stood silently as she worked, listening to her oldest friend mutter to herself whilst she wished to feel those familiar steel hands of hers again. She didn't mind being human again. Being helpless was another story.

A sudden shock ran through the duo and to Mato, who was still unconcious. Raven's berserk power had lashed out at the three and had forced its way into their bodies. Saya and Yuu collapsed under the incontrollable power of the dark sorceress, unaware of the changes that had begun within their bodies.

Spent, Raven finally collapsed.

Mato, for her part, awoke with a start. Although the same changes had begun within her, the unpredictable magic had also healed the concussion she had suffered. She looked around dazedly at the scene before her, rapidly noting her unconscious friends next to the pile of rubble.

"Sensei! Yuu!" she ran to the pile of rubble and dragged Yuu to the electronics shop they watched the news at earlier, away from the black bolts of lightning and beams of burning light. After returning for Saya, she proceeded to slap the older woman awake.

"Sensei, sensei please wake up!"

"Kuroi?" the brunette was understandably disoriented, "I don't feel too good."

"Sensei, where are Yomi and Kagari?"

"They were in the arcade," she groaned, "We have to get them-urp!"

"Don't get up!" cried Mato, pushing her teacher back down, "I think you're hurt."

"The black stuff zapped us," she moaned, "I dunno what it did."

"You three stay here," said a male voice from behind Saya. Cyborg had finally repaired himself to the point that he could stand. Whether he could fight was yet to be seen, "I'll get your friends."

"You can't fight, you're hurt too!" noted Mato, not that he could understand her. He only knew about the girls in the arcade from what Starfire had yelled.

"Girl, I can't understand- your eye's on fire!"

"Eh?" was Mato's "question", "What did he say, Saya?"

"Your… eye," it wasn't possible. The Otherselves had always been confined to the Otherworld. How could Black Rock Shooter be making her way here?

"Saya! Your eyes are red!"

A quick look at a mirror confirmed it. Both of their eyes had changed color to red and bright blue respectively, in addition to the blue flame adorning Mato's left eye.

They leaned over Yuu to open her eyes. Sure enough, a bright orange eye with a ringed pattern peeked through.

"You don't think…?"

The two looked over to the pile of rubble where their friends were buried; unaware that Cyborg was standing behind them with a bucket of cold water.

* * *

_"Stand UP Kagari Izuriha."_

_"I can't," she whimpered._

_"You must," insisted her double, "if not for yourself then for her."_

_ A window opened. How long had they been in a house?_

_"Yomi!"_

_Indeed, behind the wooden frame lay her oldest friend, unconscious and bleeding from a wound hidden by her hair._

_She pushed againt the wire, but flinched back when it cut into her skin._

_"Stand."_

_"Yomi! Can you hear me!? Yomi, answer me!"_

_She tried again, resisting the pain for a moment before she fell back again._

_"Stand!"_

_"Yomi!"_

_She pushed against the wire again. It creaked against the ornate wood of her seat._

_"STAND!"_

_"YOMI!"_

_The wire snapped._

_She fell to her hands and knees._

_"Stand," It whispered, "who are you? Who are we?"_

_She rose. Eyelids shut._

_"I. Am."_

_Amber eyes opened._

"Chariot."


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Things were not going well for the Titans. Whatever Dr. Light had stuck into his suit this time had made him powerful enough to deflect even Starfire's attacks. Raven, Beast Boy, and Cyborg were still out due to their injuries, leaving only the outmatched alien and a human acrobat to face a madman with an overpowered laser.

As it is, Dr. Light was having a field day. The blue crystals that were still powering his right laser not as powerful as the green ones he was going after, but they were still powerful enough to penetrate even Cyborg's armor.

Speaking of which.

"Get back tin-man!"

Cyborg cursed under his breath as he ducked back behind the garbage truck. Contrary to what Dr. Light believed, Cyborg was not after him. Rather he wanted to rescue whoever was under the rubble as he was too damaged to fight anyways.

After waking up, he had received a backlash of all recent communications, including the children that were stuck under the rubble. Shortly after, he had tried to put out an eyeball which was apparently supposed to be on fire.

He was definitely getting an explanation for that later.

At this point, they were just getting their rear ends handed to them. Things were going so well for Dr. Light that he was completely unprepared for the explosion that blew out from the rubble.

From the ruins of the arcade emerged a massive creature with a derelict doll's head, massive spider-like legs, and a seat set between the two wheels on its rear with a third wheel of the same size as a backboard.

"Is that-?" started Mato.

The spider crawled forward revealing several unconscious children and a few adults on its back which Starfire flew in to collect.

She turned to thank their benefactor when she noticed who was piloting their carriage.

Adorning the seat was one of the strangest cyborgs that any of them had ever seen. Considering the unusually long list that the Titans had to pick from, this was saying something.

A yellow and white Victorian dress adorned her body while a black crown sat on top of her head and a sword sat strapped to her back. A set of deadly-looking claws cradled a larger girl delicately, while two wheels took the place of her calves and feet.

"Chariot!?"finished Saya.

Robin turned to see two girls, an older woman in her twenties with short hair and bright red eyes, and a wet teenager with black hair drawn into pigtails and beautiful blue eyes with a blue flame erupting from the left one.

"Wh-you know this girl!?"

Chariot gently placed the older girl in Starfire's arms, before grasping the sword and the massive wheel behind her to use as a shield. Starfire decided to first take the girl back to the ground.

"Yomi!" called Mato.

"She is the friend that you spoke of?"

Mato merely nodded with tears overflowing. Starfire marveled for a second at the sight of the blue flame that emanated from her left eye before she noticed that the older woman had not joined them. Instead she was transfixed on the sight of the blonde girl.

"Kagari?" she whispered.

The silence lasted for a second more.

Drawing the sword from her back, Chariot lunged with a leap from her carriage. Blade singing in the air, it found purchase on the Doctor's left gauntlet, destroying it. Dr. Light cried in pain, silently grateful for the triple Kevlar layer that protected his arm.

"You-!" he fired off a beam to her head, only to have it be deflected by the shield that rammed into him with the force of a freight train.

"She's good." Complimented Cyborg as he took down the last arcade worker, "but where'd she come from?"

"Well?" said Robin to his latest find.

"We can explain later," said Saya, "right now you need to save that man."

"Save him?" asked Starfire, "is he still in danger?"

"See for yourself," she replied as she pointed towards Chariot, who was approaching the unconscious Dr. Light with a raised sword.

"Titans, GO!"

The battle cry alerted the blonde Otherself in time for her to deflect Cyborg's beam with her blade. A green glow from above alerted her to Starfire, allowing her to block the starbolt with her shield. Between the two, she was left helpless against a kick in the gut from Robin.

She flew into a nearby window with a grimace on her face. Instead of pausing to get into a battle stance like most would have, she simply straightened herself back up and rolled back into the battle.

Eyes on her victim, she did not see Cyborg coming in from the right until it was almost too late. With a quick slash of her blade, she deflected the beam towards Starfire, who barely dodged the assault. Robin swung at her with his bo staff from the left, only to have it shatter when she moved her shield into its path.

Starfire was about to take advantage of the sudden opening, when she was blindsided by something sweet and creamy.

Mary had decided to join the battle. Firing giant macarons at the airborne alien, it eventually managed to stick her to the wall with the tasty, mulberry treat.

"Starfire!" cried the two remaining members before they too were pummeled by flying pastries, mint and chocolate in this case.

"Of all the things that a giant robot spider can use as a weapon, it shoots candy!?" complained Cyborg as he struggled to remove himself from the sticky filling.

"Kagari-chan! Don't!" cried Saya.

Chariot did not listen. She only ambled forward towards her target.

Forgoing the sword, she lifted her right leg above Dr. Light's neck and began spinning the wheel with a sound like a buzz saw.

Cyborg finally freed himself with a sonic blast and ran to stop bloody murder from occurring in front of them. He primed a shot, only to be tackled by the surprisingly stealthy spider.

Robin followed suit, noting Starfire's immobile form under the creamy filling before running to save the life of the madman that had plagued them all day.

The two gave their best fight to the massive machine, but Cyborg was too damaged and Robin was near the point of collapse. They could only watch helplessly as the girl brought her foot down.

"Kagari!?"

The wheel landed.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** First attempt at a fight scene. Tell me what you think!


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Yomi had woken up. Confused and bleeding, she had sat up to see her first and oldest friend a step away from killing a man in a weird looking suit.

A single cry was all it took to divert her attention to herself, leaving her under the stoic gaze of two beautifully ringed, amber eyes. The saw-like wheel had landed next to the man's neck, a single millimeter away from severing the carotid artery.

"Kagari-chan," she whispered.

"Yo-mi," replied Kagari with a voice like a broken record, "you're-o-kay."

She blinked. Twice. And looked around. She seemed surprised by her surroundings, as if she had just arrived.

Then she looked down.

"Wh-wh-what? Why-!? How did I-!?"

She slipped, falling on her rear. The wheels suddenly spun backwards, skidding her into the wall behind her.

"Wh-what happened to me!?" she clutched at her claws, trying to remove them.

"Calm down," called Saya, "don't be scared Kagari-chan. We can help you."

"What happened!?"

She flinched back at the sudden touch of her overgrown spider.

"Mary," she whispered and flinched again, "why do I know her name!?"

"Kagari, you have to calm down! You fused with your otherself. Everything will be fine," _I hope._

"B-b-but-!"

"Kagari-chan," said Yomi, shutting her up instantly.

She stood up shakily, walked to her friend, and hugged her, taking care to avoid her claws.

"Breathe. You'll be fine. I promise."

"Y-Yomi," whispered Kagari before she took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "ok."

"Ok?"

"Ok."

"Ok then," finished the greenete, "now. Will someone please tell me what's going on?"

"We would like more information as well," commented Starfire.

Saya sighed in defeat while Mato slowly picked Yuu up on her back.

"Is there someplace we can talk privately?"

* * *

"How did she escape the Otherworld?"asked Raven.

"You know these things?" asked Cyborg.

The ten of them had made their way back to the tower after being flown (Kagari), teleported (Yuu and Beast Boy), or driven there (Yomi, Mato, and Saya). Yuu and Beast Boy were still unconscious, or rather sleeping if their snoring was any indication. Beast Boy was in his room but Saya refused to let Yuu out of her sight and had opted to let her sleep on her lap.

Kagari had refused to separate from Yomi since their arrival. She had not been allowed into Cyborg's car for fear that her claws would ruin the leather seats and did not want to ride Mary over, mainly because it couldn't float and had made its way to the garage through the submarine entrance. Mato would have received the same treatment had her eye not put itself out.

Yomi now had a bandage around her head and was being fussed over by Mato, much to Kagari's chagrin.

"I've run into them before," replied the grey-skinned beauty, "but she shouldn't be here. They are nothing more than mental constructs. Even if one managed to step into the real world, it would fall apart in seconds."

"But this one was formed around its host," pointed out Saya, "Chariot is Kagari's otherself."

"Has that happened before?" asked Raven. She was not aware that such a thing was even possible.

"Sort of," she replied and pointed at her lap, "Yuu once switched places with her otherself, Strength. She was going through a difficult phase at the time and she couldn't stand the pain anymore, so she forced a switch. Mato here once visited the Otherworld to fight her own otherself."

"And Kagari?"

"That's what confuses me," replied Saya, "Kagari has never made contact with her Otherself."

"So what am I?" asked Kagari.

"Otherselves are pain given human form," she explained in Japanese as Starfire translated, "whenever you feel pain in your heart, it means that your otherself is fighting for you. If it dies, then your emotions for the person that caused that pain die with it."

"What does that mean?" asked Starfire.

"Let's say that you are in love with someone," she replied in English, "but you get into an argument with them. If your otherself is killed, then you will be overtaken by the pain that formed them and forget whatever emotions that you felt towards him or her. You forget that you were ever in love with them until the otherself comes back to life."

"So I'm pain?" whispered Kagari.

"Guy's I can't understand a thing anyone here's saying," cut in Cyborg.

"Oh, my apologies," replied Starfire as she walked over to Mato and turned her head towards her, "I will transfer the language."

That caught Robin's attention.

"Wait, don't you have to-?"

"Mmph!"

The Boy Teen Wonder trailed off when his green-eyed girlfriend grabbed the smaller girl and locked lips with her. Mato's startled yelp was drowned out by the orange-skinned beauty's lips as her eyes began to glow green. The two ignored their friends' shock as information was passed from one mind to the other… alongside a rather long (and sultry) moan.

"Ugh, anyone get the plate of the train… that… hit… me?" asked a voice to the right.

Beast Boy was awake. And sore judging by his stiff movements and the hand on his head. Still, there were worse sights that one could wake up to.

"Dude, when'd Starfire go lesbo?"

Kagari and Saya merely looked in shock while Yomi appeared to have passed out. The rest of the team _should_ have gotten used to their foreign roommate's eccentricities by then, but this was still a not entirely unpleasant surprise.

Starfire finally cut her "victim" loose, who proceeded to catch her breath.

"What… the heck… was that!?" she gasped.

"Can you understand me now?"

"Of course I… can… I can speak English!?"

"Yes. I gave you the English," replied the floating alien with a smile, "now then, who is next?"

"No, wait! I already speak-mmph!"

Four kisses later, everyone in the room was speaking the same language and very red-faced. Except Starfire, who was trying to explain to Robin that the kisses meant nothing while attempting to receive an explanation as to what a "lesbo" was.

"There are worse ways to wake up," Yuu said, "but that was still my first." She smacked her lips, "why do I taste mustard?"

"I could already speak English!" yelled Saya.

Yomi was still out, Kagari was still miffed, and Mato was still blushing.

Beast Boy had half a box of tissues in his bloody nose, Cyborg was trying to reboot, Raven had magically turned red, and Robin looked incredibly annoyed. The Teen Titans were used to weird things happening in their tower, but this was a first.

"So, now that we are all on the same page, sort of," said Kagari as she shot a glare at Starfire, "am I pain?"

"Not exactly," said Raven as she fought down a blush, "I have to look into it, but I´m pretty sure my powers triggered your transformation. My magic reacts to emotion. If you felt helpless, they might have helped you become your otherself to fight off the threat. Granted, they usually react to _my_ emotions, but magic tends to be unpredictable."

_There's also the issue with my mirrors,_ she thought. It wouldn't be the first time her powers tried to tell her something through obscure methods.

"So… what now?" asked Saya, "Your magic didn't just affect Kagari. Yuu, Yomi, and I didn't have this eye color before. Strength, Dead Master, and Black Gold Saw did. Mato always had blue eyes but the flame is Black Rock Shooter's as is the _glowing_ blue."

"Are those their names?" asked Beast Boy in obvious distaste, "I dunno how those sound in Japanese, but that is LAME in English."

Raven smacked him over the head.

"Yeah, they're pronounced in English though," Saya said as she reached into her bag. She pulled out a sketch pad and showed them a familiar picture, "that's Chariot you already saw her. She uses a sword and shield as a weapon, Mary the spider carriage, and a bunch of little spider dolls." She changed the page, "This here is Dead Master."

"Okay, creepy," Beast Boy was smacked again, "what? I mean she's rocking the demon maid outfit but the scythe makes it look like she means business."

"I didn't know you could draw," commented Mato, "did you make one for all of us?"

"Yep. This is Yomi's otherself. She used to live in a battlefield called Chandelier Palace, or that's what I always called it anyways. Chariot lived in the Broken Toy Box by the way. Anyways, she has those claws and the Death Scythe but she also can also make a massive army of skeletons made from the millions of corpses in the Otherworld. The real dangers that follow her are the giant skeletons and the two skulls that always follow her around like bodyguards."

"That's me?" asked Yomi with a distant look.

"Yep, moving on," she changes the page to a girl with long hair, horns, and a massive blade, "this is my otherself, Black Gold Saw. She can teleport from one place in the Otherworld to the other but originally came from the White Ruins. She has a watering can that can create more otherselves so she's pretty much the one that brings new life in there."

"Wait, new life means more people in pain," noted Raven, "why-?"

"MOST questions will be answered at the end of the presentation," interrupted Saya. She would get her just desserts, but that didn't meant that she couldn't delay them as long as possible, "Here we have Strength, Yuu's otherself. She lived at the center of the Otherworld. Power-wise, she is likely the strongest of us. She can also turn her hands into Gatling guns, grow an extra set of arms, and control fire."

"Okay, that's really cool," complimented Cyborg, "but why is she at the center?"

"She's the one that began our Otherworld," replied Saya noting Raven's reaction, "so she's at the center of it. I never came up with a good name for it other than Giant Rubik's Cube but Puzzle Core also fits. Now, last but definitely not least, is Mato's otherself. Black Rock Shooter."

She changed the page to a girl in skimpy shorts, a bikini top, black boots, and a coat.

"Black Rock Shooter is nothing short of savage."

"Hey!"

"She is by far the most dangerous even if she is not the most powerful," she continued, "if Black Gold Saw is life, the Rocky here is death. She will kill anything that moves due to Mato's desire to keep her friends from hurting even at her own expense. This was more obvious when Chariot began torturing her when she went to save Dead Master."

"What!?"

"She often killed the children that Black Gold Saw brought to life," Saya continued to ignore her friends and the overall reaction to Rock's history as an infanticide, "usually by decapitation with a weapon called the Black Blade, which is sort of shaped like a katana. She usually uses it to deliver the finishing blow though she did kill a few other otherselves like Black Matagi with the cannon. Her primary weapon, however, is the Rock Cannon. This happy little tool shoots flaming boulders that can destroy almost anything. The cannon itself can also turn itself into a Gatling gun. Oh, and she has been known to summon two cannons in their machine gun form."

The sketch book closed.

"Rock's hot," said Beast Boy, unaware of Raven's presence behind him, "OW!"

"What are the chances of an arrival from these other ones?" asked Robin.

"Well, like I said our eyes now match the ones from our Otherselves," pointed our Saya, "but other than that, I have no idea. Maybe that's it, or maybe Black Rock Shooter is gonna come and kill us all."

"HEY!"

"Hey, do these come off?" asked Kagari, pulling at her gauntlets, "the wheels are freaky enough to begin with."

"I think I can teach you how to turn them back," Yuu said, "it can't be much different from how I did it back in the Otherworld."

"Really? The legs too?"

"Probably," she said, rubbing her chin in thought, "but you know, there's just one thing I don't get.

"What is it?" asked Mato.

"Why did Kagari get to transform first!?" she cried, "It's not fair! I was the one that went to the Otherworld first?"

"I'll switch any day you want," growled said blonde.

She stood up to leave, but lost her balance on her wheels and fell on her rear.

"Things are going to get lout again aren't they," groaned Raven.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Well, I finally finished the first part. Not sure who's gonna turn next, though I can guarantee that it won't be Yuu. Speaking of which, it is hellishly awkward to write her name! I kept writing it as "you" instead of "Yuu".

Anyways, just to clarify I have no idea whether Starfire can do that or not. Her Wiki page stated that she can receive language but in "Trouble in Tokyo" she states that a lip-locktransfers language, which implies a two-way ability. As it is, I actually wanted to avoid that kind of thing but I also needed for the BRS cast to learn english ASAP. So, yeah, surprise yuri moment.

On that note, I have no intention of breaking Robin and Starfire up despite the fact that he should totally be with Raven.

One last thing, this is the last chapter that I already had finished so I wouldn't hold my breath for any new updates until at least next week.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Nimunimunimunimunimunimunimunimuni…"

"She still at it?" asked Cyborg as he came into the kitchen.

"...munimunimunimunimunimu…"

"Yep," responded Mato, taking a swig of her orange juice.

The Titans had convinced them to stay at their tower, pointing out that it could be dangerous if one of them transformed outside. Three days had passed since then and their parents were finally arriving. They were partially informed of the situation, but Kagari's parents were particularly upset. Due to their work, none of them been able to make it over yet but the Titans had arranged for them to arrive that same afternoon.

Robin was not looking forward to their arrival as he was often the one who had to deal with the parents of potential Titans. Well, the ones that had parents _and_ were on speaking terms with them. Abandoned metahuman children were a lot more common than most people thought.

"...nimunimunimunimunimunimuni…"

"Is she still at it?" asked Raven as she came in, heading straight for her herbal tea.

"...munimunimuni…"

"Yup," replied the duo.

"...munimunimunimuni…"

"For the love of-. Yuu! For the last time, rubbing your fists against your head while growling "nimunimu" in the lotus position is not going to trigger a transformation."

"How do you nimu?" she yelled, "you nimu saw this before!"

"Stop saying "nimu"."

"Gomen-nimu."

Raven gave an exasperated sigh before turning to Cyborg and Mato.

"Isn't she supposed to be helping Chariot?"

"Kagari-chan's training with Robin," replied Mato, "apparently she still can't walk, so he and Yomi set up a rehab program."

"I see," that had surprised her. To her knowledge otherselves were fully aware of all their abilities, "has anyone seen Saya? I've been meaning to speak with her."

"I think she's still asleep," said Cyborg.

"Nimunimunimunimunimunimunimunimuni…"

"Yuu!"

* * *

"You're doing great!" said Yomi as she held Kagari's claws in gloved hands.

"I've moved twenty feet," replied the gloomy blonde.

"Progress is progress," added Robin from her left.

The three were currently in the gym. Robin was training his speed with a set of stun-laser turrets while Yomi helped Kagari walk. He found it weird that she had so little control over her own body after she had taken down Dr. Light. Depending on what the others were like, they might even make good honorary Titans.

The whole team had been interested in adding new branches all over the world after the Brotherhood was taken down. Asia, particularly Japan, was not scarce as far as superheroes went. The problem was that it was not easy to tell which side they were on as they often fought specific enemies and later disappeared or lost their powers, like the girls with animal ears that Cyborg and Bushido managed to track down.

"Ugh, what are my parent's going to think?" moaned Kagari, "Yuu's useless too. She's supposed to helping me hide these things."

"When are they coming anyways?" asked Yomi.

"At lunch time," replied Robin as he delivered a blow to the target on the top of the laser, deactivating it immediately, "around two o'clock."

"Only three hours left then," muttered the crowned girl, "then it's off to the doctor with his happy saws."

"We both know that won't work," stated Yomi, shuddering at the memory of Kagari's earlier attempt at removing her own hand with a miter saw, "please don't try that again."

"Yeah, it grew back anyways," replied Kagari as she too remembered her painful experience, "how was I supposed to know I could feel anything through the metal?"

"Didn't Inori-sensei explain that?" asked Yomi, "something about it being your real hand."

"It's metal! I shouldn't be feeling _anything_!"

The two continued to squabble as Starfire wandered in. Robin had stopped sulking on Tuesday, which made her happy, due to the new events that took up all his time, much to her chagrin.

"Friends Chariot and Dead Master!" she called, "are you improving in your walking skills?"

The two blinked, startled by the use of the unusual names.

"Dead- why did you call us that?" asked Yomi.

"Huh? Oh, my apologies. We don't use our real names here."

"Why?" asked Kagari.

"To protect our secret identities!"

"What for?" continued Yomi

"Huh?"

"You live in a big ass tower in the middle of the beach," pointed out Kagari, "not to mention that none of you are very inconspicuous and I don't think you guys even own normal clothes."

"…"

* * *

"Richard!" said a voice from behind Robin. He'd been on monitor duty for half an hour and was glad for the distraction. For a second anyways.

It took a few seconds for the name to register on everyone else's mind.

"Who's Richard?" asked Beast Boy from his place in front of the TV.

"Robin is Richard!" she replied happily, unaware of her boyfriend's shocked face.

"Dude, your real name's Richard?" asked Cyborg as he put paused on the Robot Man game he'd been playing against Beast Boy.

"You didn't know?" asked Saya from the kitchen table, though she did note that Mato had taken off the second that Starfire came into the room.

"Well, Robin sounds like it would be his real name," replied Cyborg.

"Yeah, though I think it's a girl's name," finished Beast Boy.

"We could always call him Dick," cut in Saya, "that's short for Richard isn't it?"

"Dick, yes I like the Dick!" said Starfire, earning a snort from Beast Boy and Cyborg, "the Dick is short and sweet, like small candy!"

"Dude, she's gotta be doing that on purpose!" chuckled Cyborg before he was clocked in the face by a birdarang.

"But Richard is Robin's name," pondered Starfire, ignoring Robin's attempt to kill Beast Boy, "just like Beast Boy's name is Garfield, Cyborg is Victor, Starfire is Koriand'r, and Raven is-! What is Raven's name?"

They all looked at the aforementioned sorceress from her spot next to Saya who she had been sharing a pot of tea with.

"Raven." She stated simply.

"Yes, but what is your real name?" asked Starfire again, thinking she had been misunderstood.

"Raven."

"Dude, you use your real name?" asked Beast Boy, "I always thought you'd made it up too, like the rest of us. Raven sounds _way_ too creepy to be a real name."

A dark shadow reached up and smacked him upside the head.

"What about the rest of you?" asked Starfire, "do you wish to be called by your real name or your other name?"

"Well, I'm fine with Black Gold Saw if you really want to," said Saya, "though I really don't see the point of the aliases."

"The point is that some of us still have family somewhere," said Robin, "family that is either powerless or already in danger. If any of our enemies were to find out about our real names they could use them to track them down. It's protocol to stick with your superhero name while you're suited up."

"Ohhh," said Yomi from her more recent spot near the door. She was helping Kagari move by rolling her from her shoulder, "I always wondered about that."

"Where's Yuu and Mato?" asked Kagari after Yomi sat her down.

"Mato is hiding from Starfire and I convinced Yuu to nimunimu in her own room." Replied Raven.

"Nimunimu?" asked Kagari.

"Nimunimu." Replied Saya.

"Nimunimu…" finished Yomi.

"Stop with the nimu!" snapped Raven.

"Nimunimu!" cried Saya and Kagari.

"Why is friend Mato hiding from me?" asked Starfire.

"She's kind of scared of you," replied Saya, "that kiss really freaked her out."

"Did I not do it right?" gasped the alien, "should I do it again? It is different to teach language than it is to learn. I know! I shall teach her tamaranean to make sure I can do it properly!"

Boosted by her brilliant idea, Starfire flew out the door to track down her blue-eyed friend.

"This won't end well," stated Raven, everyone agreed.

* * *

Mato was out of breath. She had hidden near the lobby behind a large flower pot filled with fake plants. She knew she was being immature, but she kept thinking about that single moment in which the alien girl had forcibly taken her first kiss and hadn't been able to look her in the eye since.

"I was saving it too," she moaned to herself, thinking of the person she was saving it for.

"What were you saving?" asked her mom.

"My first ki-," wait, "MOM!?"

"Hi honey!" said the older woman before she was wrapped in a hug, "I'm so sorry I could come earlier! We wanted to be here sooner, but the boy with the mask said to wait. He thought you were dangerous, can you believe that?"

"Robin told you not to come?" said Mato with a scowl. They'd all been told that none of their parents could make it due to their jobs. She needed to have a word with Robin later.

"Yep," replied her mother, "something about radiation. He didn't send the ferry out for us until this morning! So how are you? You didn't mutate or anything did you?"

"Well, sort of," she admitted, "we should explain inside."

"Sure, we'll go in as soon as the other parents arrive. They packed heavy."

Mato was about to comment on that when a bubbly voice brought a chill down her spine.

"Friend Mato! You have nothing to fear from me! I will teach you tamaranean!"

"No, wait! Get away from – MMPH!"

The alien girl had locked lips with her again. Right in front of her mother.

"I always thought you liked that Little Bid girl?" she replied calmly as the rest of the parents arrived to see her lock lips with the heroine.

_Kill me._

* * *

**Author's Note:** And I'm back! Sorry for the wait, finals and all. I should probably be studying now that I think about it. Anyways, I managed to type out up to chapter 9 this time, so you can expect a few more updates. I currently have a total block on my other story Transformers: Alliance, that I really need to get through. Later!


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

_Run. _

_It's coming. _

_Run._

_It had to run. _

_IT was coming. _

_The one that finished all that it encountered. _

_Death._

_Death hunted her, sought her as it sought all._

_It had to guard Yuu. _

_That is what the heart of its Host said and it was in no position to argue. _

_It had to find a way to distract Death, but how?_

_All Death knew was murder and the hunt. How does one-?_

_It stopped at a clearing._

_A woman in a maid's outfit with a large sniper cannon was fighting Death. She would lose, it knew. Death was not strong, but it was relentless. _

_Life struggled, fought, bit and scratched and clawed to cling to life. But death is patient and it always won._

_Death reflected this as she destroyed Long Range Maid with a single shot to its weapon followed by a trust from the Black Blade._

_Death was victorious once again. _

_As it always was._

_As it always woul-_

_Oh._

_It knew._

_It was awful what it had to do, but it had no choice._

_To guard its charge, it had to do the unthinkable._

_It had to become Life._

_Its Host would torture the minds of others to turn their Hooded Children into the Masters of the Battlefields. _

_The new Masters would then fight Death to keep it away from Yuu._

_It was awful, though the Host._

_It was cruel, agreed the Child._

_It was necessary, they both knew._

_So the Host turned the Child into a Master._

_It became Black Gold Saw._

_It would become Life._

* * *

"Saya-chan-sensei!" called a voice from behind her eyelids. Saya Inori awoke from a dream she had not suffered through in years.

"I'd never seen it from her point of view though," she muttered to herself.

"Sayaaa!" came the voice again and Saya grogilly sat up.

Her lifestyle didn't really let her sleep in much, so she was taking a full advantage of these "vacations".

"What is it?" she called out.

"Their parents are here!" said the vice that she now recognized to be Yuu's right before the door opened, "do you want to hide?"

"Nope. I started this and I have to see it through," she replied as she stood, missing the object next to her bed, "time to face the gallows."

* * *

"So let me see if I understand," said Kagari's mother, Tsuyuki, "my daughter, a completely normal high school freshman girl, has turned into a mechanical embodiment of pain by a magic spell and there is no way to change her back. Can't you just unspell her?"

"Dispel, and I'm afraid it's not that simple," responded Raven.

The whole group, minus Yomi, Kagari, and Yuu, had moved to the lobby after their arrival, though Robin was not happy about their early arrival. He'd need to have a word with the ferryman later. He only counted his lucky stars that all of the parents already knew English.

"All my magic did was trigger the change in response to their emotions, not sustain it. If I'd noticed the power drain earlier then I would have been able to stop the change. At this point their new forms are fueled by their own souls rather than my magic, which makes it dangerous to try to force a reversion. All things considered, we got lucky. My magic could have easily killed them."

"Killed _them_?" noted Haha Kuroi, "_Their_ change? Mato looks fine."

"My left eye tends to catch fire when I feel danger nearby," pointed out her daughter.

"Danger? What kind of danger?" she asked urgently. Her daughter had better not been playing superhero!

"Well, any-," her eye lit up in, startling her mother.

Everyone looked around, danger was not an uncommon occurrence in the tower.

"Raven! There's a wasp on your hood!" cried Saya.

"Don't move," said Cyborg as he let the wasp on his servo.

"Anyways, it's really annoying," continued Mato as Cyborg let the wasp out, "anything will trigger it, though I can do it on my own too. Beast Boy dropped a water balloon on me the other day and it lit up. To make it worse, he and Yuu keep using me to roast- DON'T YOU DARE!"

"Do – doesn't that hurt?" she asked apprehensively as Beast Boy put the bag of marshmallows down with a pout.

"Mato, you are burning the ceiling again," noted Starfire behind her.

"GREXBLOGH NI SHA!" cried the shorted girl, taking a leap over the couch to hide behind her mother.

"Was that tamaranean?" asked Robin, he could feel his eye twitching against his mask.

"Shoun," confirmed Mato, presumably in tamaranean, though she might have just bitten her tongue.

"That said," cut in Hideki Izuriha, Kagari's father, "where is our daughter?"

"She's still learning how to walk," responded Saya, "the only one that has any experience with this is Yuu, so she's been helping her out for the time being."

"Yuu does? Did she transform too?" asked Haha.

"Yes and no," said the teacher, "yes she has transformed but no, she has not transformed here."

"She transformed back in Japan?" asked the worried mother.

"Not exactly," responded Saya, unsure on how to approach the subject, "look, it'd be best if we were all together when we explain. I wasn't watching the full time that Yuu was in the Battlefields."

"What!?" snapped Raven, "you said that Yuu switched places with her Otherself once. You didn't say that she went down to the Battlefields."

"I thought that was a given," she replied, "unless you thought she stayed in the White Room, that's the only place she could have gone."

"Of course I thought she went to the place between the worlds! No one could leave the battlefields sane, never mind a twelve-year-old girl!"

"Wait, twelve?" cut in Mr. Izuriha, "Yuu's the same age as Kagari isn't she."

Saya could only sigh in defeat. No use delaying the inevitable, she supposed.

"Yuu fought in the Otherworld since she was twelve," she stated with her palm against her forehead and her elbow on her knee, "we met back then. I was on my senior year in high school and she was in middle school. These… girls were a constant problem for her back then."

"If Yuu was down there… who was with us?" asked Mrs. Kuroi shakily.

"Strength took her place," she replied, "normally, Otherselves don't have wills of their own. They fight instinctively from their Hosts' emotions. Strength was different. Where most would fight, Strength learned to hide, to protect the negative emotions that Yuu was feeling. If Strength was killed, Yuu would have been overwhelmed by the emotions that formed her body."

"Wait, you said that Yuu was having trouble with some of her classmates," noted Mrs. Kuroi, "Yuu was being bullied?"

"What about her parents?" asked Robin, having noted their absence, "Her file read that the mother died in a fire two years ago, and the father has been absent. But she should have still received help from the mother."

"You really do your homework," noted the teacher, "but yes. That's how Strength ended up living with me while he was in Yuu's body."

"If you knew what was happening," growled Raven, "why didn't you tell someone?"

"Ha! 'Excuse me, but this girl was actually replaced two years ago by a mental construct that she created to deal with the constant bullying she suffers and he parents' idiotic existence. Oh and she actually chose this change because she would much rather fight for her life against psychopathic murderers with impossibly powerful weapons than live in our world.' Tell me how _that_ would have gone down."

"All right, we see your point," said Robin, "but you still should have done _something."_

"I did, and I really wish I hadn't needed to," said Saya dejectedly, something that did not escape Raven's or Robin's attention.

"Can we just see our daughter?" asked Mrs. Izuriha.

"Just a second," She turned back to the door, "Yomi! Kagari! Could you too come in now?"

"No!" snapped Kagari's voice.

"Kagari, they'll have to see eventually," pointed out Yomi.

"No! I'll just stay inside!"

"Like before?" asked Yomi.

"Well…"

"You're crazy if you think I'm gonna let that happen again."

"No, wait, don't!"

The sound of a large object being scraped across the carpet filled the air.

"Kagari, start rolling or I'll carry you!"

"You can't pick me- eep!"

"You're heavier than you look!" grunted the bespectacled girl.

"Wait! Put me down! You'll hurt your back!"

"Will you walk?"

"Hmmp!"

"Kagari…" warned Yomi.

"Fine, but hold my… claw. I'm still kinda wobbly."

A sound somewhat similar to that of an electric motor came from the hallway as Yomi turned the corner. She was wearing thick, leather gloves and was holding what appeared to the adults to be a rather savage gauntlet.

"Easy, try not to push it," she warned.

"I'm trying," whined Kagari, "you try rolling like this."

"I have a giant skull to ride on according to Inori-sensei," replied the greenete, "just hold on for a few more seconds."

The two finally made it to the door, noting the shocked gasps of Kagari's parents.

"K-Kagari-chan?" asked Tsuyuki, not quite believing that the machine in front of her was her daughter, "is that really you?"

"Hi mom. Hi dad."

* * *

**Author's Notes: **So it's finally out! Sorry for the delay. Real life tends to suck every so often.

Someone pointed out that Saya is kind of hard on Black Rock Shooter. I thought it was obvious that she was messing with Mato but I may have exceeded myself.


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"So, how's it going with you and Mato?"

"What do you mean?" asked Yomi, "she's my friend."

"So you still don't know," asked her mother, "well, you'll figure it out."

Tanaka Takanashi picked up the sketch of what her daughter would soon look like as she cocked her head to the side in confusion.

"You know, your cousin's going to cry when he sees this," she said as she looked over the picture.

"Souta?" asked Yomi, "Mom, he cried when I turned thirteen. 'Why did you have grow up!?' remember?"

"Yeah," muttered Mrs. Takanashi, "I actually worry about that boy. He could be confused for a pedophile."

"I remember how much you freaked out when he first hugged me," chuckled Yomi.

"Oh, remember his little sister?"

"Nazuna?"

"Yeah, Kozue sent me a picture of her," said Izumi as she took out her cell phone, "look."

"Wha-! She's huge!"

"Tall women are common in our family," pointed out her mother, "it skipped my generation, but I wonder whether you're going to be that tall."

"Mom, Izumi and Kazue are nearly two meters tall. I really don't want to end up like that."

"Why not? It'd be interesting."

"Do you see many stores with clothes for women that tall?"

"Hmm, good point."

The mother and the daughter laughed.

"Hah, we're avoiding the real issue again aren't we?" asked the mother.

"Yes, yes we are," replied the daughter.

They smiled.

"Some things never change."

* * *

Kagari fiddled her claws as her parents tried not to stare. Mary was fairly imposing after all.

"Aren't you scared of it?" asked her father.

"It's kinda hard to be scared of a part of yourself."

"Sooo," started Mrs. Izuriha, "your name is Mary."

The massive demon chariot nodded.

"That's nice," said Mr. Izuriha, "it kinda reminds me of that doll you used to have."

"Yeah, I think it is actually," noted Kagari, "Mary? Are you my old doll?"

Mary nodded.

"What can it do?" asked Mrs. Izuriha.

"Well, are you hungry?"

Mary slid its head backwards to reveal a toothy mouth. The massive maw opened and a gigantic pastry fell to the floor.

"Is that a… macaroon?" asked the mother.

"Yup, Mary can shoot them out of her mouth," she replied, "I can't say I know why though. Hey Mary? Can you shoot anything else out?"

The massive doll nodded again and opened its jaws. A mild glowing emerged and a yellow starbolt shot out, forcing the resident humans to run for cover.

"Mary! I didn't ask for a demonstration!"

Mary, for her part, had the courtesy to sheepishly hang its head and scuff the floor with her front leg. Her master crawled forward on all fours to pat her under her chin.

"It's alright, just don't do it again," Kagari turned to her parents, "sorry about that, she's a bit… excitable."

"I can tell," noted her father, "um, what is that thing?"

He pointed at the T-sub, and the gaping hole on the side.

"Ugh, Cyborg's gonna kill me."

"Is it a plane?" asked her mother.

"I think it's a submarine," replied Kagari, "though it could be a spaceship."

"Either way, I hope we don't have to pay for that," noted Mr. Izuriha.

"Um could you help me up?"

"Oh, here honey," said Mrs. Izuriha as she helped her daughter stand up. She could walk with help, but standing up was still impossible for her.

"Thanks."

"This feels familiar," pointed out her father.

"Well, at least they're attached to you this time."

"I'd rather walk normally again," grumbled their daughter, "some things never change, do they?"

* * *

"So this is what the rest of you will look like?" asked Haha as she looked over the sketches, "bikini top and all?"

"Yeah," replied Saya, "not too happy about that part either, but Mato's the only one that's fully human so at least she won't have to worry about slicing open the shampoo bottles like Kagari did yesterday… and the day before that… and the day before _that. _Heck, Yomi has to help her wash!"

"Maybe we should get those hand soap dispensers for the shampoo bottles," pondered Cyborg from his place in the computer, while he ignored Mato's red face, "it's just a matter of time with the rest of you, right? How's Yuu gonna handle that?"

A quick image of Strength crushing a shampoo bottle between two fingers flashed through their minds followed by an image of her trying to reach her own head with the massive hands.

"Well, unless we can figure out a way to turn back and forth Mato's gonna end up bathing all of us," commented Saya as Mato turned into what could be a new shade of red.

"Ah, the harem ending," noted Mrs. Kuroi, "you'd best treat them right Mato."

"Wha-! Mom-! Bu-! She-! Eeeeeeeeeee..." stuttered Mato, finishing with a high itched sound similar that of a mouse that has been partly throttled by a bull.

"Ah, some things never change," said the woman to her flustered daughter as she tried to eliminate the mental images.

Unknown to the group, Yuu had been listening to the whole conversation from her hiding spot in the kitchen, in front of the fridge but invisible from the living room.

"Some things never change, huh?" she muttered as she sipped her tea. She sighed as she put the cup back down, the perky tea leaves teasing her with their carefree strokes. She leaned back and lifted her hand, turning it this way and that to look it over, and clenched it into a fist to hear the metal scraping under the skin.

"That's what I'm afraid of."

* * *

**Author's Note: **This is pretty much a filler chapter to set the scene for the next part. Many of you have guessed that they're merging with their otherselves into a single being but that was pretty much a given to avoid multtiple personalities. An issue I have now is that this is as far as I had planned this story, excluding a few conflicts. I'm also still making up my mind as to the primary antagonits, General Immortus and Slade being the top contenders. If anyone has any ideas, let me know in a PM. Toodles!


End file.
